Historical Western Studies On Early And Medieval Chinese

The present dissertation is a singularly perceptive and informative assessment of the field of Western studies on Chinese historical phonology,showing a comprehensive command of the relevant sources and materials,including not only current ones but also many far lessen known ones dating from the 19th century.The core of the paper is dedicated to a broad evaluation of the contribution to the field of phonology in general,and of Old and Middle Chinese reconstructions in particular,made by the great Swedish sinologist Bernhard Karlgren.This is not to imply,however,that early forerunners,such as Joshua Marshman,Joseph Edkins and John Chalmers,have been overlooked by the present dissertation.This thesis is essentially divided into six parts:(1)A first,introductory,one,which focuses on the importance,methods and innovations brought by the present work;(2)A second part,which is dedicated to a comprehensive review of traditional Chinese works on phonology,and evaluates the contributions,weaknesses and peculiarities of indigenous studies about the subject,clarifying in which aspects Western scholars' studies represent a step forward;(3)A third part dedicated to early forerunners,stressing in particular the figure of the English missionary Joseph Edkins,who was the first scholar to reconstruct the sound system of Old Chinese;(4)A fourth part which is entirely devoted to the evaluation of Karlgren's ideas about Old and Middle Chinese,how they were received,evaluated and eventually contrasted;(5)A fifth part,which is dedicated to the analysis of all the post-Karlgrenian approaches,from the ones of two well-known French linguists,such as Maspero and Haudricourt to the one initiated by the Soviet scholar Yaxontov,from the Canadian sinologist and historian Edwin Pulleyblank to the more recent Baxter system;(6)A sixth and concluding part,which briefly summarises the newest approaches after the nineties,such as Schuessler or Baxter&Sagart,and which puts some attention on the limits of Old and Middle Chinese reconstructions and on the direction these studies will take or will have to take.